The packers' favourite has gained prominence and there are few portraits of politicians in this year's popular art prize. The stand out work is a deceptively innocent re-appropriation of Aboriginal kitsch.

This year's Archibald Prize winner is a painting with great affection for its subject. Louise Hearman's Barry was a surprise choice – but it deserves to find an ultimate home in the National Portrait Gallery.

Prizes are a common feature on the cultural economy landscape. In Australia there is the famous Archibald Prize for portraiture, there are numerous prizes for literature and poetry, the AFI Awards in film…

Namatjira, by Imants Tillers, which won the 2013 Wynne Prize.
Art Gallery of NSWApril 2, 2013

It was the 1960s when a curator – who shall remain nameless – was ordered to hang Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira’s work in his gallery. He hung the painting next to the ladies toilet with a vase of…

Del Kathryn Barton’s Hugo is the 2013 winner.
AAP/Art Gallery of New South WalesMaret 21, 2013

UPDATE: Del Kathryn Barton has won the 2013 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Hugo Weaving. This is the second time Barton has won the prize, her last winner was in 2008. The only other woman to win…

UPDATE: Tim Storrier has won the 2012 Archibald prize for his self-portrait, The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch). Shortly after noon today, Steven Lowy, president of the trustees of the Art Gallery of…